Meet the Opposing Team for our 2025 Debate

Women of Influence’s The Annual Great Debate 2025 will get you thinking, laughing and learning…

This year’s topic: That a woman born today is better off than a woman born 100 years ago.

Meet our Opposing Team – Alison Geale, Emili Matsumoto, and Shannon Willoughby who will oppose the notion that women are better off!

Learn more about Alison

Alison Geale

CEO, Bravehearts Foundation

Alison Geale is the Chief Executive Officer of Bravehearts, a leading Australian child protection organisation. With a background in senior media leadership, Alison brings strategic insight and a deep commitment to child safety, leading Bravehearts’ mission to prevent and treat child sexual abuse.

Since becoming CEO in 2019, Alison has championed national awareness, sector collaboration, and systemic change. Her leadership has guided the launch of Bravehearts’ first Reconciliation Action Plan and strengthened advocacy for online safety, media responsibility, and education.

Emili Thai

Former Dior Executive | Devoted Wife & Mother

Emili Thai built a successful career in luxury retail, working her way up to National Education manager then retail manager with Parfums Christian Dior in Sydney. Her role involved leading customer engagement and team development within one of the world’s most iconic beauty brands.

Today, Emili embraces her most cherished roles as a devoted wife and proud mother. She brings the same grace, warmth, and leadership she honed in the corporate world to her family life, embodying the values of a modern traditional wife.

Shannon Willoughby

Executive Director Strategic Partnerships Office
– University of Queensland

Shannon Willoughby is Executive Director of the Strategic Partnerships Office at The University of Queensland. Under her leadership, the Strategic Partnerships Office serves as the front door for industry and government to connect with the university and support large scale, multi-faceted partnerships and projects which focus emerging global challenges and opportunities.  

In her role, Shannon drives opportunities of scale with government and industry to support new partnerships, in research, innovation and policy, with a focus on energy transition and resources, health and biomedical science, defence and national security, advanced manufacturing and enabling technologies, agriculture and the environment.

Shannon is a former senior executive at Trade and Investment Queensland, CEO of Study Gold Coast and a former chief reporter at News Limited. She sits on a number of industry and advocacy boards and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

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